July 17, 2009

Two more singles in this post, and again from Benin. Although I don't know all that much about the music of Benin, I don't think the artists performing on these two records are typically Beninois.

In the case of the first, King N'Gom (whose first name is Meissa), this is not so strange. He is in fact from Senegal, and at one point worked with Dexter Johnson. The experience appears to have given him confidence. Shamelessly he uses quotes from Cuban son music, clearly without any idea of the meaning of these lyrics - or the Spanish language.... I love it. I have no objections to gibberish in any language, and certainly not when done with such fervour and passion. And King N'Gom has a great voice for it.

At the start of the second record (which is rather scratchy I regret to say) you may fooled into thinking the track is going to be one of those broody ballads. But then the track takes another direction altogether, in a rhythm that reminds me a bit of that wonderful kaseko music from Surinam (if you don't know this music, it may be worthwhile looking out for it). The singer, Pablo Medetadji, obviously is an experienced singer. I like the casualness of his phrasing. And in the version of that ultimate worldmusic song "El Manicero" (which I suspect was covered more times in Africa than in the whole of Latin America*) he too demonstrates his fluency in hispano-gibberish. More please!

7 comments:

Thank you for this another geat beninese post. I personnaly know King N'gom and he still has a great voice. He used to be a huge star in Benin. Nowadays, King is leaving in paris and built a studio In Dakar where he created a Jazz Music Festival.

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